Sir, - As a former public representative in Northern Ireland and a long-time worker in social welfare (including being founder of Victim Support in Northern Ireland in 1982) I want to express my delight that Derek Nally is a candidate for the Presidency. There could be no better news for ordinary people or for Northern Ireland.
I have worked with Derek for more than 20 years and know him to be a man of the utmost integrity. I have watched and waited with him over long hours attending to the needs of individuals in distress. I have been beside him working through the most complex drafting of legal documents for establishing European organisations. I have seen him a match for some bright brains in Europe trying to pull a fast one!
I have watched him preside over the most difficult public meetings with skill and sparkling humour and I have been privileged to be with him and his wife on social occasions when they have shared that rare gift of making everyone they meet feel the most important human being in the world.
I believe Derek Nally embodies all that is best in Irish tradition - valuing the heritage of the past with an openness to innovation - illustrated in the ready way he embraced the new idea of victim support and developed the Irish Association for Victim Support.
For Northern Ireland the election of such a man as President would be an important signal for the future. In my many conversations with him on the difficult issues of the past 20 years I have found that he seems to be guided by three basic principles: the importance of the rule of law administered with fairness and honour (derived no doubt from his service as a very senior police officer); care for victims of crime and injustice in every section of society; and tolerance of difference.
Friendship has marked his relationship with people in Northern Ireland - where he has worked a great deal in recent years - and his real understanding of the differing viewpoints which exist in the northern communities has made it possible for anyone to talk to him in depth with honesty and safety.
That a man with such qualities and such a rich lifetime of wide experience should be nominated for the Presidency of the Republic gives me hope for the future. Were he elected, I believe the Republic would have an exceptional ambassador in the world and someone who could bring healing to the wounds of the island of Ireland. - Yours, etc.,
Peter McLachlan OBE DL MA,
Belfast 7.